Cycles
by superstarultra
Summary: Both Itsuki and Tsuruya wear their masks when the time calls for them. But when the spotlight shuts off, and the curtain falls, they only have each other in the end. Rated T for language and some OOC thoughts.


**Disclaimer: I do not own The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya or any of its characters. I also do not own any of the materials referenced in this story either. This was made for entertainment purposes only and not for profit. So there you go.**

**A/N: In lieu of writing comedy fics, I'm trying to improve my train of writing serious fanfics.**

**I don't exactly remember HOW I came up with this. I think it was due to a conversation with some friends about analyzing the personalities of the characters that became a debate. And while I stood on the sidelines and watched, I thought about giving some of the themes a dark spin on them. Because darkness is lovely and sweet.**

**And after looking over and thinking about the relationship of Haruhi and Itsuki, I got this. Yeah, I know. I'm weird like that. Oh, well. Happy Valentine's Day, guys, at least from where I am.**

**Enjoy.**

**Pairings: Itsuki/Tsuruya, one-sided Itsuki/Haruhi, one-sided Tsuruya/Mikuru, implied Kyon/Haruhi, and one-sided Mikuru/Haruhi.**

* * *

Life, as you may have heard, isn't exactly fair.

You're born, grow bigger, go to school, grow up some more, get a job, get married, grow older, and die. Simple as that. Nothing more, nothing less. Try to earn more out of life, and you end up with nothing.

Nothing.

Zip, zero, zilch, nada, goose-eggs.

But it wasn't that way for a young boy by the name of Itsuki Koizumi.

A gentlemen by appearance and an esper by nature, Itsuki was a very attractive boy at the prime of his life. His smooth demeanor and charisma earned him the attention of many a schoolgirl and he was more than happy to engage them in conversation. Yet, none of these women interested him with their talks of gossip and flaunting of their looks. Yet, there was one girl that captured his attention before he even enrolled in high school.

Haruhi Suzumiya- high school student, time distortion anomaly, key to auto-evolution and god of this world. Just to name a few of her monikers.

As of now, she was the girl of Itsuki's dreams.

Whenever Haruhi needed something no matter how absurd, Itsuki would always be there to make sure the task was completed. He'd glimpsed her in a dream when he'd become an esper, and she'd been on his mind ever since. Haruhi was playful, athletic, bright, and a beautiful young woman to be around. She was everything he could ever hope for in a girl.

But it was when he finally realized these feelings, that Itsuki realized he had made a critical error. He had placed Haruhi on too far a pedestal, and now she was completely out of his reach. She was the god of the world, and he, a lowly toady toiling away for her unique, sometimes mad whims. Haruhi was too pure and good for him to taint. And even if he had found the courage to confess to her, who's to say that she would return his feelings back? No girl wants to spend the rest of her life with a guy who kisses up to her all the time. He'd heard of her exploits with other boys and hoped that perhaps there was something that would make him stand out from the rest. But before he could discover what that particular "something" was, he was too late.

She had already chosen someone else.

Kyon took his seat right across from Itsuki whenever club meetings began. It was the same thing every day between them. Board games, board games, board games. A man can only play so _many _of them before his patience is as thin as a wafer. He sips his tea that was just brewed by Mikuru-he doesn't really care for someone as shady as her-and shifts his gaze over to Yuki-he trusts her, but is still wary about what her plans are sometimes- for a bit.

He watches, with a smile as always, as Kyon tiredly sets a black piece down on the board. "Your turn, Koizumi."

Itsuki nods and sets down his own white piece a few spaces away.

Kyon groans and rolls his eyes.

Itsuki smiles some more, but the corners of his mouth seemed more pulled back than usual.

_You useless idiot._

When it came right down to it, he truly hated Kyon. He had a good amount of reasons that could fill a page to justify that. Kyon was lazy, he was sarcastic, and he always treated Itsuki with the same level of respect one would give to the scuff on the bottom of their shoes. It had started as a seed of discontent at the first few weeks of school, but the school year had nourished that seed, and now Itsuki's hate was in full bloom. It helps to be born with the patience of a saint, when your job requires you to be constantly in the face of someone you loathe.... Did Kyon honestly think he enjoyed acting like a conniving fruitcake?

_Look at him. Fawning over that Asahina slut. Disgusting._

_He never looks at Miss Suzumiya that way._

_He treats me like dirt even after I pledged my allegiance to this club._

_He always objects to her plans._

_He insults her intelligence._

_He spurns all her advances._

_She'd move the entire world for him, and he wouldn't even bat an eye._

_And every time he makes a mistake with her, I'm always the one to clean it up._

_And he.................................. almost HIT her..._

_That's it, Kyon. Drink your tea and feel all cozy with Miss Asahina and Miss Nagato. I'll be where I always am.... Out fighting monstrosities born from the girl you cause so much anguish to. You'd never get anything done if we didn't have to spoon-feed you the answers on a daily basis._

_What I'd give to rip this mask off, and smash your goddamned head into this stupid Othello board...._

_No._

_No._

_Stop it, Itsuki. Get those thoughts out of your head._

_You can't be doing your job with those thoughts in your head._

_Relax. Take a breath. Smile._

_That's it._

_Remember how Mori showed you. That's right. Good 'ol Mori._

It was when he looked up and saw Kyon, Mikuru, and Yuki staring at him oddly, that he realized how tightly he was gripping the table with both of his hands and tapping his left foot at a fevered pace.

He stopped and resumed the game.

Of course, it was obvious why Kyon was Haruhi's little lapdog. Whereas Itsuki would nod and smile, Kyon would sigh and frown at her notions. He was a stubborn mule, a stick in the mud. And no matter the carrot or how hard she puller, Haruhi could never break him down.

Haruhi wanted a challenge.

And that simply wasn't in the job description for the epser.

And so Itsuki went through the rest of his week, wearing his smile, and following Haruhi's orders. Nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Until he actually talked to _her_.

Tsuruya was a very outgoing person by nature. With her ever-present smile, ankle-length hair, and her boisterous laugh, she was a beauty wanted by almost all of the boys he knew. An A+ girl, he recalled Taniguchi deeming her. As the daughter of the wealthy family that helped fund his group's finances, and the best friend of Mikuru, Tsuruya had just as much sway with Haruhi as did he. To Haruhi, Tsuruya and Itsuki were good friends with each just as they were with the rest of the Brigade.

Itsuki hated Tsuruya.

And she hated him back.

Well, not exactly that way.

Tsuruya never outright _said _she hated him. It just seemed that whenever he shared his plans about the club, Tsuruya always gave him a look of suspicion that vanished if he noticed. She'd narrow her eyes at him and stick her upper-lip at him, showing off her prominent fang. He hated that fang more than her ear-raping laughter. Oh, the laughter. Tsuruya laughed at _everything_. No matter how lame or unimportant the sentence, Tsuruya always burst into high-pitched guffaws that cut right into Itsuki's patience. Whenever he heard it, he naturally assumed she was laughing at him. She'd done it in the past. She'd laughed at his formal meeting clothes, his hair, his manner, his smile, and the way he acted around Kyon. He could have sworn she called him a fruit once.

_I swear one day, I'm just going to throw caution to the wind and just deck the bitch across the face. Knock that ridiculous tooth out of her mouth. Not so smart are we now, Tsuruya? Where's your laughter, now? Snobby little tramp..._

_You're doing it again, Itsuki._

_Stop it._

_Relax, breathe, smile._

_Miss Su- Haruhi doesn't want a second-in-command with a frown now, does she?_

One day after a meeting with his superiors and the elder heads of the Tsuruya family, he spotted the girl herself walking about a hallway, looking for something to do. Itsuki had recalled along the esper grapevine that a mysterious object had been dug up on her property. Kyon and Mikuru had been involved somehow. Was that how he heard it? Anyways, instead of keeping it at his headquarters, the item had been relocated to an area within the Tsuruya manor. He was quite certain that it dealt with the Mikuru from the future (he hated her more than the present Mikuru). And if it concerned time-travel, it concerned Haruhi Suzumiya.

That meant it was his business, right? He decided to pump the second-year for information. The conversation went a little something like this:

"Hello, Miss Tsuruya."

"Hey, Koizumi. What's with the 'Miss'? I'm not some old lady, nyoro."

"Ah ha ha ha. My apologies. So, _Tsuruya_, how is Miss Asahina doing?"

"....Fine, I guess."

"That's good to hear."

"Say, Tsuruya? I heard a rumor that something very interesting is being held at your house. Something that pertains to Miss Asahina and Miss Suzumiya. Mind letting me in on the details?

"Well, Koizumi, it's kind of a megas big secret between me and Mikuru, nyoro."

"Surely, you can tell me about it. We're on the same side after all?"

"...........Yeah, I guess."

"Then, you'll tell me?"

"I thinks that falls under the category of Nunofya, Koizumi."

"Hmmm? I'm afraid I don't quite follow...."

"None of ya business."

She turned to go. He wasn't about to let her, though.

"HEY! What the hell?!"

"You're going to tell me everything you know about that thing. Now."

His voice shouldn't have come out as a hiss, and his grip on her wrist could've been less rough. But that didn't stop him from pinning her against the wall and pressing the issue. Of course he should have kept an eye on her other free hand. He could have stopped the nails from raking his cheek.

"Fuck!"

And off she ran.

Itsuki cupped the side of his cheek, nursing his wound. It was a superficial injury and there was no blood. The only problem was that he found it odd that he actually _enjoyed_ the attack. It was like...... something Haruhi might do.

It wasn't long before the esper caught up to the heiress and actually talked to her.

He couldn't really _quite _remember how they got together. We're they even together? They didn't really do the things couples did on a regular basis. But they still spent time together when one of them needed the other. When he listened carefully, Itsuki noticed just how hallow Tsuruya's laughter really was sometimes.

He hadn't really considered the similarities between Tsuruya and Haruhi.

Both are insane, loud, sly, and energetic. Tsuruya just knows when to stop. But when he's alone with her, he can sometimes get away with pretending that those hands are Haruhi's. And when she laughed right in his face or slapped him, he only saw _her_ golden eyes instead of two yellow ones.

It surprised him when she told him that she hated Haruhi one day as they lay in bed together.

"Why do you hate her so much? You seem so chummy with each other."

"....She took her from me."

"Took who?"

".........Mikuru........."

Wow. He clearly didn't expect that. Clearly, there's more to Mikuru Asahina than meets the eye. Now, he dislikes the time-traveler even more, with her harboring twisted affections for his goddess. But he's not going to tell Tsuruya that. She'll only punish him again. Or maybe he should. She's much sexier when she's pissed off.

He remembers a night not too long ago where he woke up in his room with her. She was lying face-down into his pillow, weeping quietly. If he didn't know better, he could have sworn that she'd muttered Mikuru's name a few times. It was all he could do to place a hand on her back and another on her head. He rubbed her soothingly until she ceased her crying, then got up and got ready to go meet with Kyon for a talk about Haruhi. When he came back, she was gone. The bed was made and her clothes were gone, making the encounter seem like a dream. But it wasn't.

Itsuki had the scars on his arms to prove it.

They didn't truly love each other, and they weren't always on the same sides. But looking at each other, they were all they had at the moment. Itsuki wanted the attention of a goddess, who had already selected her chosen one. Tsuruya wanted the love of a time-traveler, who somehow had a crush on the same cruel goddess.

Tsuruya is feeling particularly sadistic today, crawling over to him on her bed on her hands and knees, almost like some kind of unearthly hunting-cat. He turns and gives her a half-hearted glance as she straddles him from behind, while he glumly runs the day's events over in his head. Perching her chin on his right shoulder, a grin materializes on Cheshire lips as Tsuruya comes up with a lovely new trick to get Itsuki's attention.

She exhales softly, seductively into his ear, enjoying the sensation Itsuki is showing from her sweet, hot breath. He rattles like a child's toy. But as soon as the rattles cease, she opens her mouth and bites down- _hard; _her fang penetrating the fleshy area between his neck and shoulder. The esper squirms under the upperclassman's hold, his grip on the bed tightening as she digs her signature tooth into his flesh.

He lets out a strangled cry. It's more of a cry of pleasure, than it is pain. Tsuruya pulls away from Itsuki, getting up to fetch him a washcloth for where she broke through his skin.

"Mmmmmmm.... Sweet," Tsuruya slides her tongue over bloodstained teeth, her now-red fang in particular, still wearing that mad grin.

"Heh heh heh. You're fucking insane, you know that?" Itsuki laughs softly at her, while pressing the cloth against the graze. It's almost a reversal for them now.

Tsuruya stops grinning and bursts into wild gales of laughter.

Itsuki only watches and smiles angelically at her.

She laughs harder.

He smiles wider.

Just another vicious cycle for them.

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**A/N: Kinda dark for Valentine's Day, and a bit different from my other material. But I like how this turned out. Not all fics for this holiday should be all lovey-dovey.**

**God, I am weird.**

**Read, review, favorite, tell me what you thought.**

**Thanks. :)**


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